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Contributed by NH Tea Party Coalition (Reporter)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 6:16
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HR 2499 – Statehood for Puerto Rico
The Obama administration is pulling out all the stops to ensure there are more votes for their side in 2010 and 2012. They are pushing for voting rights for the District of Columbia and now this…

There is a move afoot to have Puerto Rico become the 51st state, with voting on the bill, HR 2499, taking place as early as this week in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Three times in the past 43 years Puerto Ricans have voted against becoming the 51st state in the Union, the last time being 11 years ago. They enjoy their commonwealth status which allows them to enjoy the protection and freedoms and even financial benefits of the United States without paying federal income taxes.

HR 2499 would actually force a yes-or-no vote by Puerto Ricans on whether Puerto Rico should maintain the “current political status” of the island. This sounds innocent enough until the second part of the legislation comes into play; a second vote would have to be administered, this one giving Puerto Ricans no option but statehood or full independence if the majority expresses dissatisfaction with the current political status. Even if there is no dissatisfaction and the “current political status” is favored, every eight years henceforth from the passage of HR 2499 Puerto Rico is forced to conduct another plebiscite on the matter at their own expense.

There are several problems that must first be exposed and debated before such a move should be made. The first is that of creating a bilingual country with the addition of an almost completely Spanish-speaking state. Then there is the problem of reassigning some seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by handing at least six or seven over to Puerto Rico, depriving six or seven existing states of one representative each because of the congressionally-mandated 435 seat cap. This type of political maneuvering seems very partisan because the seats in the Senate and the House would likely be Democratic ones, and the electoral votes awarded Puerto Rico might outnumber those of 22 current states.

Well Bambam thinks there are 57 states, so I guess he's just trying to reconcile that error with reality.

"The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves" ~ JFK; from his famous inauguration speech (What Democrats sounded like before today's neo-Liberals hijacked that party)

How desperate is the democrat party?? They see the writing on the wall and need votes. The only thing that is transparent about this administration is its progressive agenda. They are nothing but thugs. :mad::mad:

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.C. S. LewisDo not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. (Are you listening Barry)?:mad:Ayn Rand

I would support statehood for Puerto Rico if the people of Puerto Rico wanted it. They've had several votes on the matter over the years, and it always gets voted down. There are advantages to remaining a commonwealth.